Iran claims capture of small US drone, US denies report

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran said on Tuesday it captured a small US drone that penetrated its airspace over Gulf waters, but the White House and the US Navy in the region denied the report.

The naval arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards said in a statement on the Guards website Sepahnews.com that "the unmanned US drone patrolling Persian Gulf waters, performing reconnaissance and gathering intel, was captured as soon as it entered Iranian airspace."

The statement did not say how the aircraft was captured, nor where or when the incident took place. It said only that the drone had been conducting a mission over "the past few days."

The Guards' naval force, tasked with guarding Iranian assets in the Gulf, said the drone was a Boeing-made ScanEagle, a short-range, propellor-driven surveillance vehicle with a three-metre wingspan that is typically launched from ships and which can fly up to 100km.